CHOT Reyes
couldn’t say for sure if the pressure of
TNT
’s grand slam bid is adding weight to its
PBA Philippine Cup
campaign that is off to an awful start.
Reyes stressed the Tropang 5G haven’t discussed about going for a sweep of Season 49 after the franchise earlier bagged back-to-back championships in the Governors and Commissioner’s Cup, respectively.
READ:
Phoenix leaves grand slam-seeking TNT to deal with treble of losses
“I don’t know, but we don’t talk about it (grand slam). It’s not something that were conscious about,” said the only six-time recipient of the Coach of the Year award.
Just over a month ago, the Tropang 5G were the toast of the town after scoring an epic Game 7 overtime win over the Barangay Ginebra Kings to win the mid-season conference that put the franchise in line of scoring a first league grand slam in over a decade.
But on Friday night, TNT tumbled to its third straight loss after going down against Phoenix, 95-81 in what would be the team’s worst start to a conference in the last 25 years, according to PBA chief statistician Fidel Mangonon III.
So is it a case of championship hangover?
“Ang tagal na nun, e. I don’t think so,” Reyes snapped back. “Maybe the first two games, but this one, there’s no excuse.”
PHOTO: Mark Cristino
The TNT coach said the Tropang 5G are obviously not playing with the same chemistry and cohesion they had in winning the first two championships of the season.
“Right now we’re not just playing good basketball, we’re not playing good team basketball. Our shooters, our scorers, our bigs, everybody. I wish I could single out one or two,” he said.
Of course, Reyes admitted he also had a share of the blame in TNT’s winless start.
“I think we need to go back and start looking ourselves in the mirror starting with me, to figure out what we’re doing wrong because obviously what we’re doing in practice is not enough judging by what were seeing during games,” he said.
TNT’s next game is on Sunday against San Miguel at the Ynares Center in Antipolo.